The increase in processing power of computer systems has ushered in a new era in which information is accessed on a constant basis. One response has been to store and maintain data in a distributed manner across multiple nodes or devices. A distributed architecture allows for more flexible configurations with respect to factors such as access speed, bandwidth management, and other performance and reliability parameters. The distributed architecture also allows multiple copies of data to be stored across the system. According, if one copy of the data is not available, then other copies of the data may be retrieved. One type of data that may be stored across a distributed system is indexing data.
The indexing data is desirably protected in the event that one or more of the devices of the distributed system fail. In addition, when a device fails, the offline indexing data is desirably restored in case of a failure by other devices. Moreover, additional problems occur when one or more of the failed devices come back online and try to reintegrate into the system.
Because of the foregoing challenges and limitations, there is an ongoing need to improve the manner in which indexing data, stored across a distributed system, is managed especially in the event of device failure.